What the pictures prevent

We should never discount, minimize or be forgetful of the immeasurable suffering experienced day in and day out by women who have to live with their decision to abort their baby. Our pictures save babies, yes. They also save mothers from this:

For some reason it had never entered my mind that with an abortion she would have to die. I had never wanted my baby to die; I only wanted to get rid of my “problem.” But it was too late to turn back now. There was no way to save her. So instead I talked to her. I tried to comfort her. I tried to ease her pain. I told her I didn’t want to do this to her, but it was too late to stop it. I didn’t want her to die. I begged her not to die. I told her I was sorry, to forgive me, that I was wrong, that I didn’t want to kill her.

For two hours I could feel her struggling inside me. But then, as suddenly as it began, she stopped. Even today, I remember her very last kick on my left side. She had no strength left. She gave up and died. Despite my grief and guilt, I was relieved that her pain was finally over. But I was never the same again. The abortion killed not only my daughter; it killed a part of me.

This heart-wrenching testimony of Nancy Jo Mann is of a saline abortion she had in the 1970’s. Saline abortions are rarely performed today but Nancy’s pain is felt by millions of women across this country. Roughly one out of three adult women in America have chosen abortion as a solution to an unwanted pregnancy, and half of those are coping with a past that includes more than just one. Our pictures save innocent human lives and spare women of Nancy’s grief.